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IS THIS IT? PEACE AFTER 65 YEARS?

Written by Mertice Ho

What happened?

The most ambitious crossover event in history and I’m not talking about Avengers Infinity War. On April 27, the Korean Summit stole the show from Marvel as both North Korea’s leader Mr Kim Jong Un and South Korea’s President Moon Jae crossed over into each other’s territory. Duringthis groundbreaking summit, the leaders pledged to seek a peace treaty to formally declare the Korean War over. In a gesture of good faith, Mr Kim has also said that he will close North Korea’s automatic test site in May and invite US weapons experts into the country to witness the dismantling. Additionally, Mr Kim has said that North Korea will alsorejoin South Korea’s time zone and move their time 30 minutes forward.

Why is this significant?

Korea was divided by the 1950-53 Korean War along communist (North Korea) and capitalistic (South Korea) lines, with hostilities ending in an armistice. This summit paves the way for the 65-year long war to finally end. However, the summit is merely the easy part. There is still much to talk about, including formally ending the Korean War and the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula. Negotiations to end the war will need to involve the main actors; North and South Korea, China and the United States. Additionally, North Korea has stated that pursuing complete denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula would require a build of trust, the promise of no invasion and security guarantees. The US has said that it would need North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons completely, verifiably and irreversibly. This contentious topic will probably be discussed at the United States and North Korean summit, which is set to happen in “three or four weeks” (there’s talk that the summit might happen on our very own sunny Island!).

Let us not forget though, that there is another player in this crossover, Japan. There are worries that the US may only necessitate the removal of missiles that can reach its mainland, leaving the mid-range missiles viable to hit Japan. However, like Infinity War, we just need to wait for part II, the US summit, to have any idea.